


National Television Awards

by BeautifulBlues



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: M/M, National Television Awards, ntas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-23
Updated: 2013-01-23
Packaged: 2017-11-26 15:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/651815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulBlues/pseuds/BeautifulBlues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colin and Bradley get ready.<br/>Quick NTA drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Colin’s fingers trembled visibly as he adjusted Bradley’s tie for what must have been the twentieth time.

“Col, Col. Just calm down, all right?”

“I know. I’m trying, I am. It’s just… This is our last chance, you know? It’s not that I want the award for myself, I just want Merlin to win something. It’s been the last five years of our lives for god’s sake.”

“Honestly, if someone else wins over you, I will burn their house down. In a friendly, supportive-to-fellow-actors way, of course.”

Colin let a burst of surprised laughter escape; Bradley always knew how to make him laugh.

“Please don’t go setting things on fire. But… I know we’ve had our issues with this show, but it’s-” Colin trailed off, mumbling something that Bradley couldn’t quite catch.

“It’s what? Finished? Ragingly homosexual? The place I learnt my – let’s face it – frankly fantastic sword skills?”

“It’s what brought us together.” Colin blushed bright red as a smug grin took its place on Bradley’s face. “Oh shut up, you were thinking it too.”

“I was.” Bradley leant in and pressed a soft kiss on his boyfriend’s lips. “And I swear to buggery, if you win I am going to kiss your fucking face off right then and there.”

“Oh yeah? Is that my reward for winning?”

“No, that’ll come later.” Bradley winked, before kissing Colin again and dragging him out the door.

They were taking separate cars, so they exchanged quick ‘I love you’s before leaving. They’d decided to do the red carpet separately, though when Bradley was walking down the media shitstorm he couldn’t for the life of him remember why – it would have been so much easier with Col at his side. Though much harder to keep his hands off him – which must, he decided, have been the reason for going separately in the first place.

When they were actually in the theatre, they couldn’t hold hands – too many cameras around – so they kept nudging each other’s knees. They knew what it meant, and that was good enough.

The awards themselves were stressful. So much suspense as the evening led up to the most important one. When the nominations were read out, Colin couldn’t help himself – he grabbed Bradley’s hand, instantly feeling soothed by the cool metal of his thumb ring.

“And the National Television Award for best actor goes to…”


	2. Chapter 2

“Colin Morgan!”

Colin burst into a grin. Fuck, he hadn’t expected that. He felt Bradley’s arms almost surround him, one hand patting his chest – lingering almost imperceptibly – while the other gripped his shoulder tightly. He looked down the line of some of his closest friends, and couldn’t even try to tone down his smile at the boys cheering him on.

The next bit was somewhat of a blur. He managed to make it to the stage without falling over (Bradley had said he wouldn’t be able to), he remembered everyone he had wanted to thank in his speech, and he coped with a coherent (ish) interview backstage. When he was done with all the ‘official business’, he retreated to a quiet corner of corridor and texted Bradley to let him know where he was.

Wow. Colin sank down the wall and sat on the floor, finally giving himself a moment to let it sink in. After Bradley had left, the taxi that Colin had been taking got lost (wasn’t it illegal for taxis in London to get lost?) so he’d nearly not made it at all, then as soon as he’d sat down it was time for his category. He had been so convinced that Benedict Cumberbatch was going to win that he’d nearly not written a speech at all – in fact he’d only written one in the end to stop Bradley nagging. Talk of the devil…

“Congratulations! Fuck, Col, I’m so fucking proud of you.” Bradley rounded the corner, sank to his knees in front of Colin and kissed him soundly, leaving no doubt as to quite how proud he was.

“You wuss.”

“What?”

“You complete and utter wuss. Where was my kiss?”

Bradley looked as if he wasn’t quite sure whether to laugh or blush bright red, so he did a bit of both.

“The thing is, I was sat there and I just thought: ‘you know what? This isn’t my moment. This isn’t for us. This is for Colin.’”

“Oh, what rubbish…”

“No, seriously.” Bradley grabbed Colin’s hands, forcing him to look him in the eye. “Tonight wasn’t for me. We know we’re together, and that’s good enough for us. Kissing you then would have been so fucking selfish, it would have taken away from that fact that you won that award. And you deserve it so much, it’s not my place to take that focus away from you.”

Colin’s face opened in a smile that, while less extreme than it had been earlier in the evening, was no less sincere. He brought a hand up to cup Bradley’s cheek, softly stroking the skin under his thumb.

“I love you, you know that?”

“Yeah. Yeah I do.”


End file.
